Field of Invention
This invention relates to containers with multifunctional lids, more specifically to containers with smoking tools attached to their associated caps, making the loading, packing and emptying of pipe bowls faster and easier.
Prior Art
Pipe smokers often use tools to load and pack smoking material into their pipe, and a poker to clean ash from the pipe bowl when finished. Smokers also use ashtrays, and containers for holding smoking material such as herbs or tobacco. However, carrying these tools around can be cumbersome, they are prone to getting lost and dirty, and tools may not be readily available when needed. The present invention solves these problems by providing smoking tools attached to the caps of the containers, hence making these tools easier to find, more convenient to transport, and cleaner and easier to use.
Several ashtrays have been designed that make it easier to empty ash from a pipe bowl. This type of ashtray has a protruding reamer, the smoker turning their pipe upside down so that the reamer in the ashtray goes into the bowl, the user then moving the bowl in a mostly horizontal circular motion to dislodge ash from the bowl. See U.S. Pat. No. 1,356,586 by Aisenstein as an example.
A disadvantage of these ashtrays is that they do not allow the user to easily see the contents of the pipe bowl and the movement of the poker within the bowl, the action of turning one's pipe upside down to empty ash from the bowl also necessitating turning the pipe back over to look into the bowl in order to ascertain the progress of ash removal, which is often insufficient, requiring the process be performed again. These ashtrays also tend to knock-out bowl screens and push ash into the body of the pipe if there is no screen. Additionally, ash tends to spray out from the bowl when using this type of ashtray, landing on surfaces instead of inside the ashtray, as the poker tends to skip across the inner surfaces of the bowl. Uncovered ashtrays are also prone to having ash blown out of it by even a light breeze or when carrying them to a trash bin.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,998,742 by Sussman and U.S. Pat. No. 2,725,884 by Colby are examples of covered ashtrays. A product that is relevant to this application is the Poke-A-Bowl Home Dome ashtray, having both a poker and a cover, indicating the need for a covered ashtray with a built-in poker. This device still requires the user to turn their pipes upside down for proper use. However, none of these devices are intended for use upside down, nor could they conveniently be used in this manner. If the Poke-a-Bowl Home Dome was indeed used upside down, the round top would not be stable on a surface, and a user holding the bottom portion of this device would find it difficult and awkward to grasp and manipulate the bottom portion to remove ash from their pipe bowl.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,413,981 by Polizzi et al, shows a Pocket Ash Tray designed to extinguish cigarettes and cigars with a built-in standard protruding from a bottom cap of a tubular container. Although showing the bottom cap as removable, his device is designed to not have the bottom cap removed during use, and indeed, would be disadvantageous to do so, since the device would no longer serve as an ashtray and would instead discharge ash and cigarette butts from the device. The only reason to remove the bottom cap is for initial manufacture or cleaning, and his device would not work any differently than if the bottom cap was permanently affixed to the container.
Polizzi acknowledges that only the top cap (18) be removed during normal use by the placement of a chain (21) attaching the cap to the container, to prevent it from being lost. If Polizzi had intended, or even conceived that the bottom cap (13) be removed during normal use, he would have likewise placed a chain from the bottom cap to the container. Polizzi's device is also intended to be used in an upright manner.
Nowhere in Polizzi is it suggested using the snuffing head to clean a pipe bowl, nor removing the bottom cap of the device during use. If Polizzi's device were used in the manner of the present invention, several problems would arise. The first is that the container would need to be used upside down, with the top cap resting on a surface while the user empties the bowl of their pipe into the container. The cap has a protruding anchor post (19) affixed to the middle of the cap, therefore the container, while resting upside down on a surface, would not be steady nor stand upright. Chain (21) would add to this unsteadiness. Ash from a pipe bowl being cleaned might therefore miss going into the container completely. If the cap (18) was removed, the hole (17a) in the inner cap (17) would allow ash to fall through the inner cap.
Another disadvantage of Polizzi's standard and enlarged snuffing head is that it, if it even fit inside a pipe bowl, would be an ineffective bowl cleaner, likely scratching the inside of the bowl and being unable to get into the corners, nor be effective in cleaning smaller bowls, nor bowls in most tobacco vaporizing devices. If a conventional pipe poker were to be used in his device instead of the snuffing head, it would not work as intended, since a poker is insufficient for extinguishing a cigarette or cigar. Finally, if Polizzi's device were used in the manner of the present invention, the inner threads of the bottom container and cap could easily get clogged with ash, which would make re-attaching the bottom cap difficult and require more frequent cleaning. In summary, Polizzi's device is designed and intended for extinguishing cigars and cigarettes, not cleaning the bowls of pipes.
There are several storage jars having lids with spoons and scoops protruding from under the lid, some extendable, but none have integral packing means, nor are they intended for use with smoking devices. Examples include U.S. Pat. No. 2,106,313 by Amrine, U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,774 by Engle, U.S. Pat. No. 2,175,735 by Banks, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,149,698 by Humphrey. U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,032 by Wu shows a jar with a spring-actuated tool protruding from the underside of the cap, specifically for use with seasonings, preserving and medical materials. However, none of the above contain means for ejecting and packing materials after being scooped-up.
The present invention solves the above problems in one simple and innovative design.